Law Makers To Approve Missouri Mortgage Products?

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Financial panel would provide independent mortgage and credit card advice

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Lawmakers in the Senate and House on Monday announced plans to introduce legislation creating a Financial Products Safety Commission that would approve mortgage products and provide consumers with advice about credit cards and retirement accounts.

Sens. Charles Schumer, D-NY, and Richard Durbin, D-Ill., plan to discuss their legislation to create the commission at a press conference on Tuesday. Reps. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., and Brad Miller, D-N.C., will discuss the creation of similar legislation they are introducing in the House, according to Delahunt spokesman Rory Sheehan.

Miller and Delahunt have the support of House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., who has indicated that creation of such a panel is a top priority of the business committee.

The panel would provide independent advice to consumers on mortgage products. It would also be charged with approving new financial and home loan products before they can be marketed to consumers.

Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Warren, chairwoman of the bank bailout congressional oversight panel, has been pressing lawmakers to create such a government commission for a number of years. She argues that consumers have become exposed to complex mortgage products over the past number of years, many of which aren't in their best interest. A government commission would provide consumers advice about whether they have the budget for such a mortgage, Warren said.

"We're talking about an area that has had a lot of change over the last number of years," Warren said in an interview.

One product that will likely come under the oversight of this committee is the securitized mortgage, which is considered a key contributor to the financial crisis.

It is expected that a financial oversight regulator would not reject securitized mortgage products outright. However, Frank is likely to introduce legislation that will require companies that package mortgages into bonds to retain a piece of the original mortgages. He said this measure would make it more likely that such a company would be interested in making sure the loans they agree to will be paid off in the future.

Loan originators have been more likely to agree to offer mortgages to people that have high credit risk if they could package and sell all their risky mortgages to investor groups. Requiring that the original lender keep a percentage of the mortgage would give lenders a greater incentive not to make loans to people who cannot afford it, Frank said.

Ronald D. Orol is a MarketWatch reporter, based in Washington.

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